Maybe people like a player such as Ohtani but don’t like the Angels? I can’t imagine it’s a huge group, even with the knowledge that Ohtani won’t be an Angel for much longer.
I can’t imagine wanting an American or National league jersey, even if I was at the All Star Game myself
Oh but of course. That’s also why most teams have three or four uniforms now. If I wanted every Blue Jays jersey they wear in the regular season I’d have to buy FIVE: home white, home baby blue, home red, road grey, universal dark blue. Plus they’ll get a “City Connect” jersey. These things cost $150-$300 depending on the quality level you check in at. It’s unreal.
The fun of them wearing their own uniforms is a bad loss. I LIKE most of the changes they have made; I like expanded playoffs, I like the pitch clock, I like bigger bases and limiting pickoff attempts, I like instant replay. But mixing the AL and NL together has no upside at all that I can see. It was a major part of the charm of MLB.
Don’t assume Arte Moreno won’t throw $800 million at him.
It allows the leagues to have the same (odd) number of teams, and each division to have five teams. That’s the only upside that I’ve found.
Yes, as it stands, that’s true. We don’t need the odd 16-14 split we had (or the 14-12 split from 1977-1992.)
Expansion in the next 5-10 years is likely, bringing us to 16-16. Where those two teams will be I don’t know, but there’s a lot of talk about this, and if they can find two billionaires happy to pay the expansion fee it’s overdue.
If they do that, the logical structure would be for each league to have two divisions, East and West, of eight teams. They you have two division champs that get a bye, and four wild cards. That just makes more sense to me; if you’re gonna have two byes, you have two divisions, you don’t lump a division champion in with the wild cards. You also avoid the current likely travesty of a bullshit AL Central team making the playoffs over a team with a winning record; as it stands, Cleveland is in the playoffs but the Yankees, Red Sox, AND Mariners, with better records, aren’t.
You can go entirely in-league for 162 games by playing 14 games against opponents in your division, 8 the other division, though I acknowledge 8 games is inconvenient for scheduling. You could go 16 in / 6 out for 160 games but the 162 number seems sacred to some folks.
Back when interleague play was new and unusual, I advocated for a rule change: when an American League team played in a National League stadium, use American League rules (and vice versa for the opposite). That way, fans would get to see the other style of play. Kind of expanding the fans’ horizons.
Interleague play was started for one reason only- to have the Yankees and Mets play and sell out their parks. Then it became a necessary evil with 15 team leagues. It would be nice to eliminate it with 32 teams. Do we really need to suffer with Tigers-Rockies and Royals-Marlins games where there is no rivalry or history just so we can have Yankees-Mets? Alas- to the powers that be the answer is yes.
I would agree that’s why they did it, but of course, it’s shortsighted, like how they just endlessly, endlessly market Yankees-Red Sox games (they’re not as bad as they used to be, I should point out.) It’s like drug use; it might seem like it feels good at the time but long term it’s not good for the sport.
I bought one before the game. The color of the America League is similar to the Mariners’ jersey anyway, and I don’t think of it as AL, as much as Julio Rodrequez.
But yes, the reason is sales. They’re almost $200 each, and the stadium was full of them.
The 2024 MLB schedule has been released.
Not sure I’d be booking non refundable hotels in the Bay Area for A’s games. I also doubt it is set in stone as I doubt the concert schedule for next year is out and teams may need to shuffle things around to squeeze in that sweet concert revenue as well.
I saw the announcement of the Brewers’ schedule for next year on their Facebook page a little while ago. It just strikes me as strange to announce next year’s schedules, when we’re only at the halfway point for this season.
I assume it gives something for MLB network to talk about on the slowest day of the baseball season but still kinda silly.
The NFL hypes their schedule release to death, but at least I understand destination travel for NFL games and it isn’t released this far in advance.
The only thing I can really look at an MLB schedule this early for is if a team has a lot of games in iffy weather for the first few weeks of the season as weather postponements are common. I’d rather not start the season with a ton of games in outdoor parks in the Midwest and Northeast in April if I can avoid it as a ball club.
I don’t understand why the tend to book almost back to back series for teams that play only two during the season. For example, the Guardians play Boston from April 15-18. Then a week later they play in Boston from the 23rd to the 25th.
Indeed; the NFL can’t even determine a team’s opponents for the next season, until the conclusion of the current regular season, as the final regular-season standings are a factor in that list of opponents. (And, for the record, the NFL announces its schedule in May, about four months before the start of the season.)
The As’ lease in Oakland expires after the 2024 season - I don’t foresee them moving to Vegas this off-season.
I’ve been enjoying the 1979 All Star Game tonight, also played in Seattle.
Now, NBC, how about that 1980 Olympics coverage from Moscow that you’re talking about! 
They’re not going to have a stadium in Vegas by April 2025, so I have no damned idea what they’re doing to do.
Take over the Aviator’s field (the imaginatively named Las Vegas Ballpark.) Or Earl E. Wilson Field at UNLV.
No way in Hell they get that new stadium built before the 2026 season.
I thought I heard they would consider playing in the Aviators’ space, but it’s a 10,000 capacity open air stadium that is in no way suited for the MLB. There are a handful of sentences online that suggest it could be easily retro-fitted for more outfield seating. Okay - so let’s bump it up to a very generous 25,000 capacity. That’s fine for Vegas - they’re not going to sell 25k tickets a game during the regular season anyway, and they can charge top 5 ticket prices to make up for the lost revenue. But then you have to watch a baseball game in Vegas outside. Do they make sure all the games start at 9pm?
The Aviators start their home games at 7:05pm. Historically, the average temperature at that time of day in the summer is 95°F. 9pm isn’t much better at 92°F.
I wonder if MLB could schedule the Wandering A’s into Petco, Oracle or Excite Parks when the home team is playing away. Heck, make an offer to use LoanMart Field! It’s not like they are going to draw 10K+ people those years.